Traveling to Myrtle Beach

This is an example of how we spend a day traveling from one town to the next via sailboat.  Ed does most of the motoring.  I will take over from time to time. On some of the trickier parts of the ICW,  the busiest, the shallowest - the Captain wants to steer - and I am happy to relinquish the wheel!  Since the time change, we are now leaving our anchorage or marina at dawn.  I never realized how beautiful a sunset can be - imagine wanting to sleep in!  I preload the coffee pot and the first one up (usually me!) gets the stove turned on.  It has been very cold in the morning, so that first cup of coffee is anticipated greatly!  If we are at a marina with shore power, we have a small heater and that makes the boat feel nice and warm!

After the coffee and dressing in lots of layers, our first chore at anchorage is to get the anchor up.  I am the one to put the anchor down - I need gravity's help in lifting this heavy anchor.  It's Ed's job to bring it back up.  Then off we go!  When we've settled a bit and I've woken up more, I go below and make breakfast.  Our usual?  Scrambled eggs and bacon or sausage.  One morning recently I made soup - Ed wanted warm soup for breakfast and I thought egg drop soup would be perfect for a morning soup.  Came out good and very hot!

Here are some of the sights along the way.  This was our journey from our mooring at Carolina Beach to North Myrtle Beach. I didn't get any photos of our getting hooked up on a mooring ball.  It was our first time with this boat.  Ed's done it on other boats.  Me?   I was a newbie!  This is when there is a ball with a line on top that is anchored securely to the bottom of the water area.  We approach the mooring ball and hook the mooring line with the boat hook, grab the mooring line and thread 2 lines from the boat through the mooring line and then take these lines back onto the boat and tie them off.  The boat is then secured in the water without the need for the anchor.  I was successful, but if Ed hadn't been able to move the boat closer to the mooring ball either the boat hook and/or me would have ended up in the water!  I'll manage better the next time around!   Getting off the mooring was a lot easier!
  

Sunset

A good photo of a pelican.  They are so fast and I've been saying these birds must be camera shy!  It seems as soon as I get the camera aimed in the right direction - off they go!

There these crosses along the ICW every once in a while.  In the center if these crosses is an anchor.

The color of the marsh grass was absolutely beautiful.  This photo doesn't catch the full brightness of them!

 

There is a lot more sand along the banks.

A duck blind.  Not sure really what kind of bird they hunt.

An egret.  There are so many in the marshes!  A variety of birds live in the tall grasses!

Another bridge.  The one in background was tall enough for us to go under.  The one in the foreground is a railroad bridge.  It stays up except, of course, when a train is approaching!  Some friends that we joined up with later on told us this bridge closed down for a while on them.  There wasn't a train but some construction type trucks doing some repairs.

Getting close to Myrtle Beach!